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U.S. says Iran knows what to do to live up to obligations

Iran knows what to do to demonstrate action in living up to its international obligations with respect to denuclearization, the U.S. State Department said on Wednesday.

Marie Harf, the deputy spokesperson for the State Department, made the remarks on Wednesday during her daily press briefing. Harf responded to a question about whether the U.S. would hold back from taking positive diplomatic steps with Iran until everything is cleared with the P5+1 and the International Atomic Energy Agency. While Harf said she would not outline exactly what steps Iran would need to take, she said the Iranians know what they need to do.

"I think what we've said is that words are good, but they're not enough, and we need to see action from the Iranian government to substantively move towards living up to their international obligations," Harf said. "I'm not going to outline exactly what that could look like, but suffice to say I think the Iranians know what they need to do."

When asked if new sanctions by Congress against Iran would improve or damage President Obama's hand in negotiating with Iran, Harf said sanctions relief will only occur through meaningful negotiation with the international community.

"Every single economic indicator right now is negative for (Iran), in large part, if not totally, because of the sanctions we've put in place," Harf said. "And if President (Hassan) Rouhani, quite frankly, is going to fulfill his commitments to improve the Iranian economy, he's going to need to achieve sanctions relief. That can only be achieved through meaningful negotiation and agreement with the international community."